Pabitra Bala is a 65 year old widow from Magura district in rural Bangladesh. She is extremely poor with very few belongings, earning only a small income of 1000 BDT (USD 13) a month from laboring on her neighbor’s land and begging in the town.

A joint EU-UNDP Women in Local Democracy project, which commenced in April 2012, works to help women in all ten regions of Armenia to better participate in the governance processes of their communities.

Only 11 per cent of parliamentarians are women, while at the local level, the reality is even bleaker. Women comprise barely nine per cent of representatives in local government. Since it opened an office in Armenia, UNDP has been advocating for gender equality. More recently, however, UNDP and the European Union have teamed-up to support women’s leadership in local communities.

In Central Asia, effective border control is important for security reasons and for promoting legitimate trade and transit. One of the largest UNDP-EU programmes in Central Asia, -BOMCA - is a complex, multifaceted programme, assisting five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with border management.

Kong Theara beamed broadly when she was handed a seaming machine as a special prize for graduating at the top of her sewing class. “I don’t think I will be poor anymore in the future,” Kong Theara, 22, said.